"The Big Sleep" is Raymond Chandler's most famous and popular novel of all Los Angeles. PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse..."Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence". ("Daily Telegraph"). "One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain". ("Sunday Times"). "Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes". (Anthony Burgess). Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction.
His books include "The Big Sleep", "The Little Sister", "Farewell", "My Lovely", "The Long Good-bye", "The Lady in the Lake", "Playback", "Killer in the Rain", "The High Window" and "Trouble is My Business".

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241956281

Raymond Chandler

Ian Rankin

Born in Fife 1960, multi-award winner Ian Rankin is one of Scotland's most popular living authors. Although he has written several books under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, and a number of standalone novels, he is best known for the Inspector Rebus series.

The Rebus books deliver hardboiled crime with a distinct Gaelic style - sometimes referred to as Tartan Noir. DI John Rebus is an old-fashioned copper with a love of 1960's rock music, which permeates the novels.

Book and writing awards

CWA Short Story Dagger (1996) (Herbert in Motion), The Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction (1997) (Black and Blue), Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature (2002), University of Edinburgh honorary doctorate (2003), MWA Edgar Award 2004 (Resurrection Men), CWA Lifetime Achievement Award (2005), Outstanding Achievement Award from the Specsavers National Book Awards (2012).